While I agree the fact that it hasn't been cited in court is a bit worrysome to companies, but open-source legal contracts realize the same benefits that code does-the more eyes see it the less chance there is that a problem lies within it.
You don't by chance work for Micro$oft do you? Just a thought.
Personally, I'm far more concerned with performance rather than size. Storage space is very nice, but if it runs slow as dirt what good is the ability to store a video or mp3?
Well a normal linux Distro takes up about 1 Gig. Should we assume that's what we need for a decent PDA? No.
Just as with every PDA OS, it will be stripped down, shrunken, compressed, optimized, etc. If linux doesn't run great on a PDA the maker is to blame for not doing a good job of modifying the kernel and apps to perform well. Hell ELKS smokes on my 12 MHz 286. http://i.am/elks
It's quite simple really. If you are a WINCE user, you are used to restarting all the time, getting corrupted files, having no control, and incompatabilities between programs made for different versions of the OS. Those things I thought of off the top of my head are just a few (very important) reasons why a user cares what OS is running the device.
Hopefully it's equipped with good battery life and a rechargable NiMH.
As very few people know, NiCAD actually beats out NiMH batteries in 99% of applications. Panasonic sells 1100mAh AA NiCAD batteries at my local Costco in six-packs. In fact, the last just as long as Alkaline batteries in situations where 2 AAs are used.
The drawback to all rechargeable batteries is that they usually put out 1.25 volts instead of the 1.5 volts Alkaline gets. This is not an issue in CD players where only two are used (only.5v difference) but is a big deal in my Sega Nomad where 6 are used (1.5v difference) but I simply wired two extra battery holders in-place to compensate. So for a grand total of 15$ I got a battery pack that lasts twice as long as Sega's 60$ NiMH battery pack (which takes 12Hrs to recharge as well, compared to the 4Hrs for my NiCAD batteries).
Another thing: NiCAD has a longer life (# of times it can be recharged), is much lighter, and are cheaper to buy.
Not you're fault... Lots of uninformed people post lots of stories, it's supposed to be the job of the slashdot team to decide what to post and what to trash...
As always, the moderators don't have the ability to moderate the front-page.
Royalty free chips have been around for quite a long time now... Visit free_ip.com and browse their cores if you like. You see, this is nothing special, nothing new, just the spin pit on the story makes it sound so amazing and incredible... But this is par for the course, it's just another day at slashdot.
While you have a good point, not everything about UI design is 'pain'. There are times when you want to do the inverse and turn javascript back on, go to another page, etc. Your idea is only good in your narrow explanation of the problem. The internet is much more complex than a mosquito.
SWEET MOTHER OF GOD! THESE DAMN THINGS JUST WON'T GO AWAY
But seriously though, the single thing all other floppy replacements lack is the ability to write to them using just the standard BIOS calls (like your hard drives, floppy). What good is a CDRW if you have to boot up, load software, andfigure out what you want to write and to where.
When WRITING was first invented, people went crazy saying how stupid people were going to get. When calculators, slide rules, PDAs, etc came along the story almost exactly repeats itself with only minor changes.
The truth is, having a good memory has nothing to do with intelligence. Just because you don't actively remember dates and times does not mean you are stupid. In fact, I choose my PDA storing reminders for me over the alternative: forgetting 90% of them, or struggling to remember what the hell I came in here for...;-)
When was the last time your house was invaded by the cuban military? Gee, sounds like you depend on the government yourself! You've food you buy in stores is safe to eat, the advertising you see is not making false claims. Tons of other things you depend on the government for so don't give me crap about suggesting what they should do about their power problem.
Meanwhile, my employers spend less money under my management than they ever have before, and this is even with the huge increase in the price of power. I've done my part, I was merely suggestion a way to motivate the masses. (You will notice it was the government that forces us to recycle, promotes power saving appliances, enforces smog regulations, etc)
The trash can is simple... It will store the files you've deleted. Why do you want it to do more? If I've deleted something and I know I need it back, I sure as hell know where it goes! Just because a program CAN do more, doesn't mean it needs to and certianly doesn't mean it must. After all, Trash is not meant to be a favorite storage spot...
So let's say you want to steal some classified data... You break into the 'restricted' system one way or another and simply install a keystroke recorder, a screen grabber (VNC works nicely) or any of a million other programs that will not care which window you are tying the data into!
The only way to get this to work is to reverse the process... Get VMware running the 'restricted' stuff on the 'secured' computers, that way the secured computer has to be compromised to get the secured data rather than the inverse (easier, less secure) way to do it.
Lets not forget, just because the servers get APM doesn't mean they will be used. Lets not forget the workstation machines that do have power management and most of the time it is not used. The best thing to be done is have a power saving initative done by the state of CA to give power-saving companies a small tax-cut, or some other insignificant rewards for doing something that benefits you anyhow.
No, you missed my point all together. I am perfectly happy to use the gnome-print library if I have a printer. What I don't want is Mozilla embeded in the OS (You remember the Win98 controvercy right) and millions of other things that are not needed. While I appreciate how nice looking Nautilus is, I far prefer the MacOS7 filemanager (small, and comfortable to use unlike gmc)
Although I hate to use an abused word, I must say GNOME qualifies as 'bloat'ed. They go so quickly adding new features and half breaking old ones that it turns into a mess.
Give me a WM half-way between Sawfish and enlightenment, a small, simple, fast gnome-panel, and only a couple of the simplest utilities (Mount tool, Gnome Passwd, etc) without the tons of extra libraries and I'll be happy with that 2 meg desktop system... Instead of gnome-print I'll just use lpr and be happy with it. With the exception of GTK+, those libraries are of little if any utility and most certainly a huge waste of bandwidth, CPU cycles (not to mention the bugs) to the 99% of the user base that could care less if the program interacts with the GUI or console components behind the scenes.
I've got an idea... Let's have slashdot trademark the letter 'e'. Slashdot will quickly sue it's way to multi-million dollar status, of course every site with the letter 'e' in it's name must be turned over to the trademark holders for the fair fee of $.05 per domain.
I can definately see the military's reasons for this technology, but I see no value in it for civilian communications at all. Even if it is advanced to transfer at greater speeds, it's not any jiant leap of technology... We have typical radio for most modern applications, and satelite communication for any long-distance communications. If our satelities are bombarded by missles from China, the last thing you need to worry about is wether or not you can read the latest slashdot news.;-)
Well, if you want to watch HD-TV I suggest you buy the PC Card right now or it'll be illegial for you to make a screen capture... That's what capitolism is all about, you don't buy the one that has a feature you don't want?
Besides, what would a person need a TV for? That primitive little box that doesn't even know you're there. With the popularization of broadband, video on demand, free Quicktime Streaming Server and no worries about missing something during your bathroom break, who needs a TV and what for?
You want lowest common denominator? Use Sun's JMF... Your video can be played back natively on Solaris, Windows, Linux, but most importantly, any platform with Java support can use the Java based player... The users needn't know that 3 second pause was them downloading the player:-). Now THAT is a video stream that reaches everyone!
While I do love my Quicktime TV, I'm more than just a little unhappy Mac and Windows are the only platforms that it can be recorded or played back on.
Other solutions such as REAL are very expensive beyond reason.
My suggest is to use SUN's JMF (Java Media Framework) Not only can you stream the JMF from the Quicktime streaming Server if you like, but you play back the format using a java applet not a platform dependent player... I.E. Any platform that supports JAVA can play back the stream and users can be completely ignorant of what kind of program they need just to play your stream.
You can get information about JMF from Sun at:
http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jmf
If you do decide JMF is not for you... I would recomend Quicktime as it is a standard by the very definition of the word. Even Cisco's IP/TV will soon support QuickTime. I still recomend JMF however as you will truely reach the largest possible audience by using a java based player.
And when this gets to be a popular thing to do, those of us here in the desert will have a new hobby... Sitting around outside in the shade, watching as the phonelines slowly melt away.
While I love GNOME's user interface (Up-From menus, auto-hide menus that don't hide just because a window pops up and wants the focus, customizeability, etc) I don't like how monstorous it is. I have a 750MHz Athlon with a 7200RPM Hard drive... GNOME only takes a couple seconds to startup on my system, but that's beside the point. It is a large download, it handles simple tasks the hard way, and it's not nearly as good as it should be.
As much as I like GNOME, it needs a fresh code-base that is simple and elegant. First get the panel working, then the icons, then the backgound, filemanager (a small.simple,easy filemanager like MacOS7's) and just some minor things! GNOME should be small tight code, it really doesn't need to do a tiny fraction of what it does. Everything is about having one program you want to run and needing 20 libraries to run it.
Mod me down for ranting if you must, but any desktop should feel like GNOME to a user, but it's code should do only what it needs to. A new GTK which has only what it needs, and everything should go right on top of that, no other middlemen, no other libraries should go into it. Small tight simple code... themes should be an afterthough, as should be everything else that is a nicety not a necessary feature. The GNOME trash can is a great example of how simple their desktop should work. There's an easy and simple way to do everything.
Yes, you've made your point, it was FreeBSD not Linux that the Matrix was done on, but I stand by my statements, With my 500$ 750MHz Athlon Box I can do video editing with great results using completely free opensource software which works great. And as with quite a bit of opensource software I use, I far prefer it to it's commercial counterpart regardless of price.
i dont go around deriding linux as worthless because it cant hold a candle to the mac in video editing.
Well, if you mean it's easier I'll agreee, otherwise, with a few patches, a couple programs downloaded, and a grand total of zero dollars I can turn any linux machine into a studio quality video editing box. Geez man! It sounds like you've never seen the Matrix (video done exculsively on Linux).
my Personal arguement is that Macs don't give you the freedom you have with PCs, hardware wise. If you want an ultra-high-end 32-processor PC you can get it. Getting a mail server is again just as possible. Secondly, I wouldn't use OS X if I had nothing else! The System requirements are huge (I liked OS 7.x because it can run on extremely old or brand new hardware with great performance) even for a MAC.
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While I agree the fact that it hasn't been cited in court is a bit worrysome to companies, but open-source legal contracts realize the same benefits that code does-the more eyes see it the less chance there is that a problem lies within it.
You don't by chance work for Micro$oft do you? Just a thought.
Personally, I'm far more concerned with performance rather than size. Storage space is very nice, but if it runs slow as dirt what good is the ability to store a video or mp3?
Speed and memory...
Well a normal linux Distro takes up about 1 Gig. Should we assume that's what we need for a decent PDA? No.
Just as with every PDA OS, it will be stripped down, shrunken, compressed, optimized, etc. If linux doesn't run great on a PDA the maker is to blame for not doing a good job of modifying the kernel and apps to perform well. Hell ELKS smokes on my 12 MHz 286. http://i.am/elks
It's quite simple really. If you are a WINCE user, you are used to restarting all the time, getting corrupted files, having no control, and incompatabilities between programs made for different versions of the OS. Those things I thought of off the top of my head are just a few (very important) reasons why a user cares what OS is running the device.
As very few people know, NiCAD actually beats out NiMH batteries in 99% of applications. Panasonic sells 1100mAh AA NiCAD batteries at my local Costco in six-packs. In fact, the last just as long as Alkaline batteries in situations where 2 AAs are used.
The drawback to all rechargeable batteries is that they usually put out 1.25 volts instead of the 1.5 volts Alkaline gets. This is not an issue in CD players where only two are used (only .5v difference) but is a big deal in my Sega Nomad where 6 are used (1.5v difference) but I simply wired two extra battery holders in-place to compensate. So for a grand total of 15$ I got a battery pack that lasts twice as long as Sega's 60$ NiMH battery pack (which takes 12Hrs to recharge as well, compared to the 4Hrs for my NiCAD batteries).
Another thing: NiCAD has a longer life (# of times it can be recharged), is much lighter, and are cheaper to buy.
Not you're fault... Lots of uninformed people post lots of stories, it's supposed to be the job of the slashdot team to decide what to post and what to trash...
As always, the moderators don't have the ability to moderate the front-page.
Royalty free chips have been around for quite a long time now... Visit free_ip.com and browse their cores if you like. You see, this is nothing special, nothing new, just the spin pit on the story makes it sound so amazing and incredible... But this is par for the course, it's just another day at slashdot.
While you have a good point, not everything about UI design is 'pain'. There are times when you want to do the inverse and turn javascript back on, go to another page, etc. Your idea is only good in your narrow explanation of the problem. The internet is much more complex than a mosquito.
SWEET MOTHER OF GOD! THESE DAMN THINGS JUST WON'T GO AWAY
But seriously though, the single thing all other floppy replacements lack is the ability to write to them using just the standard BIOS calls (like your hard drives, floppy). What good is a CDRW if you have to boot up, load software, andfigure out what you want to write and to where.
When WRITING was first invented, people went crazy saying how stupid people were going to get. When calculators, slide rules, PDAs, etc came along the story almost exactly repeats itself with only minor changes.
;-)
The truth is, having a good memory has nothing to do with intelligence. Just because you don't actively remember dates and times does not mean you are stupid. In fact, I choose my PDA storing reminders for me over the alternative: forgetting 90% of them, or struggling to remember what the hell I came in here for...
When was the last time your house was invaded by the cuban military? Gee, sounds like you depend on the government yourself! You've food you buy in stores is safe to eat, the advertising you see is not making false claims. Tons of other things you depend on the government for so don't give me crap about suggesting what they should do about their power problem.
Meanwhile, my employers spend less money under my management than they ever have before, and this is even with the huge increase in the price of power. I've done my part, I was merely suggestion a way to motivate the masses. (You will notice it was the government that forces us to recycle, promotes power saving appliances, enforces smog regulations, etc)
The trash can is simple... It will store the files you've deleted. Why do you want it to do more? If I've deleted something and I know I need it back, I sure as hell know where it goes! Just because a program CAN do more, doesn't mean it needs to and certianly doesn't mean it must. After all, Trash is not meant to be a favorite storage spot...
Windows got C2 huh? Can't help but wonder what OpenBSD would get!
So let's say you want to steal some classified data... You break into the 'restricted' system one way or another and simply install a keystroke recorder, a screen grabber (VNC works nicely) or any of a million other programs that will not care which window you are tying the data into!
The only way to get this to work is to reverse the process... Get VMware running the 'restricted' stuff on the 'secured' computers, that way the secured computer has to be compromised to get the secured data rather than the inverse (easier, less secure) way to do it.
Lets not forget, just because the servers get APM doesn't mean they will be used. Lets not forget the workstation machines that do have power management and most of the time it is not used. The best thing to be done is have a power saving initative done by the state of CA to give power-saving companies a small tax-cut, or some other insignificant rewards for doing something that benefits you anyhow.
No, you missed my point all together. I am perfectly happy to use the gnome-print library if I have a printer. What I don't want is Mozilla embeded in the OS (You remember the Win98 controvercy right) and millions of other things that are not needed. While I appreciate how nice looking Nautilus is, I far prefer the MacOS7 filemanager (small, and comfortable to use unlike gmc)
Although I hate to use an abused word, I must say GNOME qualifies as 'bloat'ed. They go so quickly adding new features and half breaking old ones that it turns into a mess.
Give me a WM half-way between Sawfish and enlightenment, a small, simple, fast gnome-panel, and only a couple of the simplest utilities (Mount tool, Gnome Passwd, etc) without the tons of extra libraries and I'll be happy with that 2 meg desktop system... Instead of gnome-print I'll just use lpr and be happy with it. With the exception of GTK+, those libraries are of little if any utility and most certainly a huge waste of bandwidth, CPU cycles (not to mention the bugs) to the 99% of the user base that could care less if the program interacts with the GUI or console components behind the scenes.
I've got an idea... Let's have slashdot trademark the letter 'e'. Slashdot will quickly sue it's way to multi-million dollar status, of course every site with the letter 'e' in it's name must be turned over to the trademark holders for the fair fee of $.05 per domain.
I can definately see the military's reasons for this technology, but I see no value in it for civilian communications at all. Even if it is advanced to transfer at greater speeds, it's not any jiant leap of technology... We have typical radio for most modern applications, and satelite communication for any long-distance communications. If our satelities are bombarded by missles from China, the last thing you need to worry about is wether or not you can read the latest slashdot news. ;-)
Well, if you want to watch HD-TV I suggest you buy the PC Card right now or it'll be illegial for you to make a screen capture... That's what capitolism is all about, you don't buy the one that has a feature you don't want?
Besides, what would a person need a TV for? That primitive little box that doesn't even know you're there. With the popularization of broadband, video on demand, free Quicktime Streaming Server and no worries about missing something during your bathroom break, who needs a TV and what for?
You want lowest common denominator? Use Sun's JMF... Your video can be played back natively on Solaris, Windows, Linux, but most importantly, any platform with Java support can use the Java based player... The users needn't know that 3 second pause was them downloading the player :-). Now THAT is a video stream that reaches everyone!
While I do love my Quicktime TV, I'm more than just a little unhappy Mac and Windows are the only platforms that it can be recorded or played back on.
Other solutions such as REAL are very expensive beyond reason.
My suggest is to use SUN's JMF (Java Media Framework) Not only can you stream the JMF from the Quicktime streaming Server if you like, but you play back the format using a java applet not a platform dependent player... I.E. Any platform that supports JAVA can play back the stream and users can be completely ignorant of what kind of program they need just to play your stream.
You can get information about JMF from Sun at:
http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jmf
If you do decide JMF is not for you... I would recomend Quicktime as it is a standard by the very definition of the word. Even Cisco's IP/TV will soon support QuickTime. I still recomend JMF however as you will truely reach the largest possible audience by using a java based player.
And when this gets to be a popular thing to do, those of us here in the desert will have a new hobby... Sitting around outside in the shade, watching as the phonelines slowly melt away.
While I love GNOME's user interface (Up-From menus, auto-hide menus that don't hide just because a window pops up and wants the focus, customizeability, etc) I don't like how monstorous it is. I have a 750MHz Athlon with a 7200RPM Hard drive... GNOME only takes a couple seconds to startup on my system, but that's beside the point. It is a large download, it handles simple tasks the hard way, and it's not nearly as good as it should be.
As much as I like GNOME, it needs a fresh code-base that is simple and elegant. First get the panel working, then the icons, then the backgound, filemanager (a small.simple,easy filemanager like MacOS7's) and just some minor things! GNOME should be small tight code, it really doesn't need to do a tiny fraction of what it does. Everything is about having one program you want to run and needing 20 libraries to run it.
Mod me down for ranting if you must, but any desktop should feel like GNOME to a user, but it's code should do only what it needs to. A new GTK which has only what it needs, and everything should go right on top of that, no other middlemen, no other libraries should go into it. Small tight simple code... themes should be an afterthough, as should be everything else that is a nicety not a necessary feature. The GNOME trash can is a great example of how simple their desktop should work. There's an easy and simple way to do everything.
Yes, you've made your point, it was FreeBSD not Linux that the Matrix was done on, but I stand by my statements, With my 500$ 750MHz Athlon Box I can do video editing with great results using completely free opensource software which works great. And as with quite a bit of opensource software I use, I far prefer it to it's commercial counterpart regardless of price.
Well, if you mean it's easier I'll agreee, otherwise, with a few patches, a couple programs downloaded, and a grand total of zero dollars I can turn any linux machine into a studio quality video editing box. Geez man! It sounds like you've never seen the Matrix (video done exculsively on Linux).
my Personal arguement is that Macs don't give you the freedom you have with PCs, hardware wise. If you want an ultra-high-end 32-processor PC you can get it. Getting a mail server is again just as possible. Secondly, I wouldn't use OS X if I had nothing else! The System requirements are huge (I liked OS 7.x because it can run on extremely old or brand new hardware with great performance) even for a MAC.